It might have seemed that Mercedes, after so much success since 2014, would continue this trend even after the change in technical regulations. However, reality for the German team proved to be difficult. Over the course of the season, some of the problems were resolved and at least one victory was achieved, but overall, the stable intends to pull itself together to get back on its feet next year. Roksana Ćwik spoke to Toto Wolff about the rather unexpected difficulties of the past season, his drivers or Mercedes' commitment to motorsport.
You weren't in Brazil, but it was at Interlagos that the Mercedes drivers took their first victory of the season, and it was also a 1-2. How did you feel about not being at the track where the team took its first win of the season?
It was quite strange. Susie [Wolff's wife] told me that it was a pity I wasn't in Brazil. But I had this feeling of satisfaction with the whole team. In Abu Dhabi I was very happy. You could see from the team what had happened in Brazil, they were really all happy. It was strange because I thought I had to be there and rejoice with the whole team. It was good though.
How many races have you missed in total this year?
Two races: Suzuka and São Paulo. This was actually the third race I have missed in the last 10 years.
It has been a really tough season for you. How hard have you experienced it?
It was a tough season because we saw right from the start that the car was not competitive. Here it wasn't about one race. It was one of many. We saw that we really don’t understand where the other’s performance comes from. And then slowly but surely, we got on top of it and we had another setback, and we understood that better, and then another setback… That’s why it was so painful because it was not just a blip. It wasn’t just one race which we knew from the last season how that could be. So, keeping the motivation and the energy together over the whole season was not trivial.
Did you expect it to be bad after the first test?
No, we knew that it was bad based on the tests, but it was tests. You can say our car is too stiff and it's bouncing too much, we are gonna sort that out. And then when we went to the first race, we were half a second off in qualifying. That was already pretty bad. But we always had the hope that it was something that if we sort the bouncing, the car performance would be there. But it didn't. That was very difficult to manage in the right way.
Bouncing was the main problem for a lot of teams. The main problem was in Baku. I saw that Lewis had problems getting out of the car. Is it hard for you as a team principal to see your driver struggling with such problems?
Well, yeah, it's hard to see him in pain, but it's equally hard to see this fantastic team that won a championship, and six months later that isn't on top of a technical issue. We looked at it from every aspect, we couldn't find the difference. And you see your driver getting out of the car that is too stiff and undrivable and we haven't really found the solution. That was something that I didn't think that we could end up in such a situation.
At the start of the season, a serious battle was only between Red Bull and Ferrari. Mercedes was only able to get into it on certain race weekends. Then Ferrari had their own problems and only Red Bull was left to take the championship titles. Do you think they will be strong next year too?
Yeah, for sure. We got closer, we were quicker in Brazil, but we lost many months of development just trying to figure out what the problem with the bouncing was. And that's why they are in front of us. But they have a little bit less wind tunnel time. They got a penalty. So, I think that will help us to hopefully catch up.
Are you happy with the result with the budget cap and the whole story with Red Bull?
Yes, I think it's okay. I think the biggest penalty was not the 10% wind tunnel time [reduction] or the 7 million dollars. I think the biggest penalty was the reputational hit that the team got and in a way it's unfair for the Red Bull mother brand which is fantastic in their field. But the racing team has just been having such a reputational hit and also the people. So I think nobody is kind of dare bringing it close to that anymore.
I saw one interview where you said you were trying to work to find a place for Valtteri Bottas after he left Mercedes. It's not something you team principals do for drivers, even your own.
I have known Valtteri since 2008, and he put his trust in me back then. He put the trust in me to look after him, and then he got the opportunity of Mercedes. He was an important pillar for us to win constructor world championships. I'm not letting a driver down. Even if we decide to go for someone else, I will still make sure that Valtteri has a seat in another team. And that's how we function or how I function.
You also know George for a very long time. He's very mature now. He grew up. Are you happy with him and his result and everything around?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we've been watching him grow up and go through the ranks. He won every single category that he competed in. And now we're having a young man that will establish himself in Formula One and already won his first race. And I think he's on a very good trajectory.
Nyck de Vries is leaving the team. He will finally be on the grid. Personally, I'm very happy that he found a place. If he will come back, maybe after the season, because he will change something or will change his mind, because, for example, AlphaTauri could not be that fast. If so, will you be willing to accept him back into the team?
I thought about it. I hope that he stays there, and I hope that he's successful in AlphaTauri. I hope he will be so good to make it into a Red Bull seat one day, because he deserves that. And then we take it like sportsmen, and we fight it out.
Lewis is very motivated. You can see that he wants to win. How difficult is it for you to explain to a driver who is so ambitious that it is sort of the team's fault?
He knew that. It's a highly technical sport and if we can't give him a car that is quick enough, then it's the fault of the team. And we just had a chat out there and he said, «this car is just a handful». And he said we lost one second of grip between FP3 and Qualifying. Suddenly you're competitive in FP3 and we think that we can fight for pole position and then suddenly we're six or seven tenths off. If he would have told me last year, we are six and a half tenths of the pole, I think that I would need vodka.
Mercedes has made important decisions across its factory involvement to disassociate itself from the DTM and Formula E. What led to this? And do you think there is room for growth?
Good question. I think that Formula One has become so big that everything else has been dwarfed. We were really happy, successful in DTM for over 30 years. But it has come to a point where the works team, if you wanted to compete, you need 40 or 50 million euros and the return on investment was too small for that. And it’s the same in Formula E. The audiences were just not good enough. So you have DTM there, and then you have Formula E here, and then you have Formula One in the whole room. So, we decided that let's concentrate on doing that properly and put the resources into Formula One, rather than being distracted and dilutive for the other things.
So, following on that, do you think that the success of Formula One can be detrimental to other forms of process?
It is, I think, already. I think we are seeing that we are so big that the audiences… I mean, there's great racing in Le Mans, in WEC, in GT3s and DTM, but that is happening offline, you can say. There are race fans and hardcore audiences we follow, but no one else. So, it is at risk.
Next year we will have more races, more sprint races. Don't you think Formula 1 should think about all the people who work for F1, because it's too much for them?
You know, it's not how business works. It's about growing the top line and the bottom line. I think we need to find a way around it. I don't know how we are going to do it because some people love the lifestyle and it's about traveling and they are energized doing 24 races, others not. And I think I'm going to set some limit for the people that… for me personally, I think 20 races is the maximum marking cap and we're going to see if we see more of these shifts.
Thank you very much for the interview, it was a pleasure.
Thank you too.
